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VANCOUVER — I was more impressed after my recent re-reading of Martha Hall Findlay’s ice-cool analysis of the perversities of supply management in Canada’s dairy industry than when it came out last June.

I thought at the time her 33-page paper, published by University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy, was well done. It’s crisply written, and solidly documents the faults of a system that “in virtually every other circumstance ... would be viewed as an illegal cartel.”

But supply management’s many downsides — sky-high prices for Canadian consumers are just the tip of the iceberg — have long been understood by people who’ve been paying attention. So what set her paper apart from many others is its insights into politics, not policy.

Hall Findlay is the first serious policy analyst I know to tilt head-on at the widely cited myth — a mantra for every significant party in Canada — that even if supply management is unjustifiable from a policy perspective it’s unassailable from a political one because too many votes are at stake.

She argues the opposite is true.

“Threats to risk-averse politicians from the dairy lobby are, contrary to widely-held assumptions, negligible,” she wrote. “Since 1971, the number of Canadian dairy farms has dropped by a staggering 91 per cent. There are now few, if any, ridings where dairy votes could plausibly swing elections — particularly compared to the votes of all those in those same ridings who would benefit from dismantling supply management.”

The appeal of this logic to consumers — “who are paying 1½ to three times more for their milk, other dairy products, chicken and eggs than they should be” — is obvious. But we consumers, who are also voters, aren’t the only ones who should be applauding.

Many farmers in other fields, and even a few dairy farmers, are champing at the bit to get further into export markets that have been dampened by Canada’s intransigent insistence on maintaining the hidden subsidies inherent in a supply-managed system. To the extent this is also an impediment to negotiating more and better trade pacts — and that’s a considerable extent — the same applies to every economic sector. And, of course, there are would-be dairy farmers who are kept out of the market by the $28,000-per-cow cost of quota, an artificial barrier that’s controlled by and immensely profitable for dairy-industry insiders. Plus restaurateurs, and food processors, and the list goes on.

But that was then. When Findlay was writing these things, she was a former Liberal MP who lost her Toronto riding in 2011 ­— what I’d call “a recovering politician.”

Today, as a serious though far from front-running contender for the federal Liberal leadership, she’s back in the fray. And — wonder of wonders, given the history of politicians’ cowardice on this file — she’s saying now what she said then. No ducking, and not a hint of back-pedalling. This is what really impresses me.

But is it true? Can a high-profile politician really stick her neck out a country mile on supply management and not get hurt?

I asked her when we spoke Thursday, and her answer is instructive.

If, when she was asked to do some work for University of Calgary, “I’d had the image of running for the leadership of the Liberal party, I probably wouldn’t have chosen supply management as the issue to focus on — even though I think it was the right thing. ...

“As a result, it has been harder to garner leadership support among, in particular, some of the Eastern Canada caucus members [her former colleagues in the Commons].

“So that’s been tough.”

But, “The interesting thing is the extraordinary support I’m getting from everywhere else. It’s unbelievable. From every part of the country. Even as a Liberal, from all over the West. From the middle of the country. A whole lot of people from rural parts of the country have written to support, and even sent money for, my campaign.”

It might be wishful thinking, but I take this as a sign that more voters — maybe enough to make a difference — place substance over style. And I dare to hope Hall Findlay’s style — speaking plainly, with evidence-based analysis of things that matter — will catch on among more of her peers.

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Don Cayo: Can a high profile politician take on the dairy monopoly and survive?

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